Are the Capitals ready to 'raise their flag'?

By Alex Prewitt

Apr 14, 2015 | 10:47 PM

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8), from Russia, and right wing Joel Ward (42) stand on the ice during a break in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers, Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon, AP)

The background photograph on Barry Trotz's laptop matches one on a shelf over his desk, next to a folded American flag. The picture was taken in early October, near the end of his first training camp coaching the Washington Capitals, long before they won 45 games, notched 101 points and clinched a playoff berth with five days to spare. That sunny autumn afternoon, only one preseason game remained and his final roster was taking shape. So he planned a field trip.

Everyone gathered at the Capitals' practice facility in Arlington, Virginia, loaded onto a bus and rode east for what the schedule called "Team Building." In his final season in Nashville, Trotz had taken the Predators to visit the Naval Academy, and since consistency helped land him this new gig, he would do the same with the Capitals. Four miles into the route, though, the bus pulled over for an impromptu lecture. As the players looked out the window, they saw the six bronze soldiers of the Marine Corps War Memorial. Like those men at Iwo Jima, Trotz told them, the Capitals needed to "raise their flag."

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The core of that group had skated together for almost a decade, brightened by the stardom of forward Alex Ovechkin, growing into Presidents' Trophy winners and reaching six straight postseasons, until everything crumbled last spring. On April 26, 2014, the Capitals fired second-year coach Adam Oates and declined to renew the contract of longtime general manager George McPhee. The changes seemed inevitable after the franchise's first playoff absence since 2007.

In stepped Brian MacLellan, tabbed from within to serve as interim general manager. When word reached him that Trotz had become available after 15 seasons in Nashville, MacLellan told team president Dick Patrick, "We need to get after this guy right now before he's gone." Not since Ron Wilson, six coaches ago, had the Capitals hired a coach with NHL experience. Soon, they hired the longest-tenured one in the league.

"A guy that had a resume that could hold some weight with players, could hold them accountable, have the ability to influence how they play," MacLellan said. "We needed an older, experienced guy to get things straight within our room, within our culture, within our team."

Players agreed with MacLellan. Two pricey offseason signings fortified a thin blue line and injected, in their estimation, a "heavier" style more suited for the playoffs. They enjoyed another 50-goal season from Ovechkin, another 60-assist season from center Nicklas Backstrom and one of the most remarkably durable goaltending the franchise had ever witnessed. They finished with home-ice advantage for the first round, which begins Wednesday against the New York Islanders. They find themselves describing the contrast in similar ways, blunt about the past and pleased with the present.

"It really is night and day, I'll use it again," defenseman Mike Green said. "Enough was enough after last year."

The Capitals' story is about transformed styles and rediscovered selves. It's about the greatest goal-scorer of this generation and the swagger of the coach hired to shepherd him. And in the end, it's about what Trotz wanted when he asked the bus driver to pull over.

"When you know what the Washington Capitals are all the time, when it's undeniable," he said. "You've got to know what you're going to get from us all the time. And if we have success, we'll raise our flag."

Jay Beagle never brought his cell phone to workouts, but on this day he made an exception. It was last summer in Calgary, and his wife had just given birth to their first child. Midway through his session, Beagle heard it ring and rushed over. He saw a northern Virginia area code, followed by seven unfamiliar digits. He answered, panting.

He asked how Beagle felt, how his training had progressed, what he expected from the new regime. He spoke of valuing Beagle's skills, more suited for the third or fourth lines, and asked how Beagle planned to improve his faceoffs. Months later, Beagle would say that's when he knew things were different. No coach had ever called him like that before. He later learned that Trotz called everyone.

Other Capitals had similar eureka moments. Forward Troy Brouwer's came on July 1, when MacLellan shelled out $67.75 million and inked veteran free agent defensemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen, adding depth and easing the burden on the incumbents. Defenseman Karl Alzner had his moment when he walked into the locker room and found the previous stall assignments had been scrambled. Trotz had meticulously planned the arrangement, putting veterans next to rookies .

Goaltender Braden Holtby was certainly ready for that. Last season, erratic ice time shattered whatever little confidence remained after Holtby was ordered to adopt an unfamiliar style. At one point, the Capitals carried three healthy goalies, testing minor-leaguer Philipp Grubauer while Holtby sat. In 48 games, Holtby finished with a 2.85 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage, the worst numbers of his young career.

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When Trotz arrived, he publicly anointed Holtby the starter and coaxed goaltending coach Mitch Korn, his longtime friend and colleague in Nashville, to come to Washington. After a choppy start, Holtby spent most of this season on the fringes of the Vezina Trophy finalist discussion. He tied franchise records for games played (73), wins (41) and shutouts (nine), and twice broke the mark for consecutive appearances. He became, in Niskanen's words, "the backbone" and "our workhorse." To others on the team, he was perhaps the greatest triumph of the new regime.

"I think everyone in this dressing room was fed up with the other way and were ready to change," Holtby said. "It was a combination of a lot of guys, ownership, management, players, coaches, trainers, everything. Everyone wanted a change and everyone wanted to make ourselves a harder team and that's what we've been trying to do."

Trotz also sensed a culture of "entitlement," as he later called it, and no one skater publicly personified that image more than his captain. In 2013-14, criticism of Ovechkin climbed to new heights, spurred by his minus-35 rating, .gif-able defensive disinterest and team-wide letdowns. Ovechkin was labeled stubborn and a coach-killer, but Trotz needed to see for himself. When Ovechkin returning stateside from Russia last offseason to accept his fourth Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the league's leading goal-scorer, Trotz asked to have dinner in Las Vegas.

They met at a steakhouse inside the Encore Hotel. At some point, Trotz pulled out several sheets of paper and passed them to Ovechkin. He had typed up questions on topics ranging from family history to personal dreams to the Washington Capitals, and asked Ovechkin to answer them, whenever he could. By the end of the three-hour meal, Ovechkin had moved across the table to sit beside Trotz. He needed some help reading English. He wanted to answer them all.

Trotz left that dinner believing his superstar to be undeserving of his reputation. Ovechkin walked away optimistic, but cautious. Trotz was his fifth coach in ten seasons. Like everyone, he needed to wait and see.